R-Type Final: Hands-On

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Say bye-bye to Bydo as we give the near-final American version the once over. We have plenty of movies and screens to go along with it.

By Jeremy Dunham

Usually when a franchise comes to its end, it dies a quiet death on a financial sales sheet somewhere deep within the filing cabinet of a publisher's executive room -- with resources and expenses no longer justifying its existence on the marketplace. And while we could count on several hands just how many series have met their demise in this way over the years, it's always a bittersweet surprise when someone comes along and announces it'll make one more game before calling it quits.

Bandai's .hack series was the most recent title to fit such a description, but didn't have enough time in players' hands to impact the way generations of gamers looked at its respective genre -- making its finality nowhere near as powerful as it could have been. In the case of Irem Software's R-Type Final, however, we find ourselves looking at quite a significant goodbye. As not only does it mark the end of one of the greatest side-scrolling shooters of all time, it could also be one of the last examples the category ever sees -- with only Konami's Gradius V and a handful of others left to carry on the torch for the remainder of the 3D age.

For those of us who gave the original R-Type our devoted attention in 1987, Final should feel very much the same. Much slower paced and less psychotic than more modern shooters like Ikaruga and Gunbird, R-Type Final hasn't changed much in its two decade evolution. Enemies and sub-bosses are still slow moving with multiple methods of attack and utilize various predictable patterns just like the old days. Power-ups for your ship still come in the form of floating colored icons too, and there are plenty of different options to select from that make your spaceship stronger. But that is where the similarities end and where the differences begin; as Irem has gone to great lengths to ensure that R-Type Final is as enormous as they come.

To start, the developers have packed the roster with 101 different spacecraft; each with their own strengths and weaknesses and each with customizable color schemes and weaponry. And while it's true that the differences between some of the ships are rather diminutive, the sheer size of selection and its customizability quickly allowed us to widen that gap further. And that customization is huge: if players want their ships to sport homing missiles rather than traditional ones, for instance, they can. Should they want to utilize specialized shadow bits rather than the typical sort as extra protection they can do that too; or if they just want to change the color of their machine from black to purple, it's all possible with the push of a button; Sure it may not be the vast craft builder that say, Naval Ops is -- but it's still pretty handy (and deeper than we originally thought).

Luckily, unlocking the ships is handled in a much more interesting way that just "beating the game" or "finding the secret power-up." Since R-Type Final keeps a record of everything you do (from enemies defeated to the number of shots that have been fired), certain goals will reveal special prizes with the whole setup working on the principals of a remedial experience system. From what we've played so far, this idea really seems to work and has encouraged us to play the same stage over and over again despite the fact we've already conquered it. Having multiple versions and alternate paths for every stage has been a big bonus as well.

One of the more obvious changes to R-Type Final are its visuals. Completely polygonal and no longer made up of sprites, it goes a long way towards proving that 2D shooters can still be done correctly even if they aren't hand-drawn. And Irem has certainly tried hard to prove it --avoiding the gimmicks used by older titles like Philosoma. For the most part it looks great and offers up a wide range of colors, varied enemy designs, and interesting always-changing backgrounds. It won't impress diehard graphic hounds, that much is certain, but it definitely gets the job done and almost approaches Gradius V in terms of its quality. Though just as its forerunners suffered from a huge amount of slowdown, so too does Final; especially when there are a lot of explosions on the screen at the same time -- at least the music and sound effects rock, though, as we have yet to hear a weak track anywhere in the experience.

Despite its moderate slowdown problems, the only other real problem with R-Type Final so far is the lack of enemies to fight in some sections of the game. While the intensity and amount of foes you face change based on your difficulty setting, there are particular segments of every area that are mysteriously barren with nobody to fight for a good 20 seconds or so -- a bizarre occurrence for the shooting genre. It was a problem we experienced in the Japanese version as well and one we hoped would be remedied by the time it made its release over here. But whether or not it remains to be seen (though it is unlikely).

Short of getting our hands on the final copy, we're going to reserve further judgments and observations until review time; as we'd rather spend what time we have left just sitting down and enjoying what appears to be a strong finish to a stellar series. We've provided plenty of new screens and movies on our media page below to give you a taste of what to expect when the game makes it way to retailers in a couple of weeks, so give them a click and check them out for yourself. See you soon.